Tonight`s lead, the GOP`s fairness fail. Why the Republican party`s priorities were on full display as they push to protect airline passengers but left in place Republican budget cuts that are hurting millions of Americans from preschoolers to senior citizens.

Today, the house approved a Senate bill to end the drastic cuts that ended thousands of flight delays this week. The cut, cut, cut party found a cause worth un-cutting for. They found money to undo some of their cuts. Why? Because the delays inconvenienced business travelers and company bottom lines.

But the Republican`s block helped for millions of other Americans hurt by the same GOP push cut. People who are desperate for housing, food, health care, education. The reports of how much people are hurting from these cuts are flooding in from all around the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s terrible. All the house come through, the water brown, it`s terrible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are on the waiting list for federal vouchers that will one day allow them to live somewhere better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of the sequester, no one is getting off the wedding list.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little boy teaches me his name in sign language.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: J-o-s-e.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: 5-year-old Jose De Jesus learned this skill in his head start class. They have been told to carve out about $60,000 from their budget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That could be less classes, lessen less enrollment, potential less staff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: For 92-year-old, Helen Demond (ph), this hot meal delivered to her home is a critical lifeline.

HELEN DEMOND (ph), 92-YEARS-OLD: I really rely on meals on wheels and I cannot get out to get meals. I can`t afford what meals cost in restaurants or elsewhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: But thanks to the federal funding cuts brought on by sequestration, meals on meals may have to stop serving to hundreds of clients in counterparts of county like Helen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHARPTON: Meals on wheels, cancer patients, kids in preschool, real people in real trouble because of the GOP spending cuts. Real people like the woman we just heard from 92-ye-old Helen Demond (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Asked what she would do without her regular visits from meals on wheels, Helen was at a loss.

DEMOND (ph): If I didn`t have it? I`d just have to have someone deliver groceries.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Could you afford that?

DEMOND (ph): Not really.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: This is who the Republicans in Washington aren`t listening to. These are the people who don`t have the high-paid lobbyists in Washington. This is a matter of fairness. It`s a matter of helping people who are hurting. If the Republicans aren`t listening, we have to raise our voices to make sure they hear us.

Joining me now, Dana Milbank and Jared Bernstein, thank you for coming on the show.

DANA MILBANK, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Hi, Rev.

JARED BERNSTEIN, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, Rev.

SHARPTON: Jared, you just wrote an article with the titled "this FAA sequester vote doesn`t smell right." So, Jared, what does that tell you about why Republicans allowed this vote?

BERNSTEIN: Well, it has everything to do with visibility, access, politics, and virtually nothing to do with fairness. You know, I thought Ben Applebaum from "the Times" tweeted something today that made sense. Maybe the unemployed or kids who are losing head start ought to just hang around on airport runways. Maybe that`s how they would get notice.

I noticed today in our GDP report, we are a $16 trillion economy now and you`re telling me that in the state of Indiana they are having random lotteries to figure out which kids, which low-income kids are getting kicked off of head start.

SHARPTON: Random lotteries now?

BERNSTEIN: Random lotteries. I mean, there are 800,000 people across 19 states are losing unemployment benefits to the tune of 120 bucks a month because of the sequestration, but they don`t have the visibility, they don`t have the access, and that`s why --

SHARPTON: Well, I`ll tell you what else they don`t have, Dana. Democratic congressman Rick Larson, this is what he said on the FAA vote. He says no three or 4-year-old is going to call my office and say I have been kicked of head start replace that money. They don`t have lobbyist head start kids.

MILBANK: Reverend, this is true. It`s n only, however, just a matter of unfairness in protecting the rich. The whole idea of trying to do this ad hoc response to the sequester is foolishness because everybody is going to get hit by this. OK, so the rich people now have the FAA guys in the tower. Well, they are not going to have the guys inspecting the plane. Do they want their airplane to go down? They are not going to have the TSA guys inspecting passengers in the airport. Do they want that? They are not going to have meat inspections or drug inspections. This doesn`t affect rich or poor alike and I think that`s the misconception and the reputation of takers, as some Republicans put it who would be hurt by the sequester, it`s everybody.

SHARPTON: And I think that is the real point. And then when you look at the priorities, Jared, let`s compare to spending cuts that have been addressed to the ones that have them. Fixed FAA, but not fix, cut to funding for nutrition aid for children, housing aid, head start, meal on wheels, cancer screening, I mean, it is an absurd view when you look fix, non-fixed, it shows the priorities of these that are sitting there and as you say with this multi-trillion dollar economy.

BERNSTEIN: Well, by the way, it`s actually a little worse than that in the following sense. The things that are fixed are going to hurt the things that are not fixed. Actually, it was something that was said earlier in the report that I want to correct. Congress did not find new money to shut off the sequester. What they told the transportation department was, don`t worry about the sequester. You can go into your budget and find other places to cut.

SHARPTON: Right.

BERNSTEIN: What that means is when you start replacing parts of the sequester for people who have the visibility and the access to get their voice heard and get their sequester pain taken away, it means that the cuts have to be deeper elsewhere. And where will they come from? From the poor, the vulnerable, the unemployed, the folks without the voice. So, this is just, you know, bad budgeting to say the least. But, it is getting worst.

SHARPTON: No. It`s getting much worse and it`s impacting people because when you look at what they are doing and as you say, they are shifting cuts of covering themselves, and they are not doing anything that would really in a substantive way deal with the fact that they have rendered this country in a situation that increases pain for people.

I mean, when you look at who`s affected by the automatic budget cuts by the end of the year, 600,000 women and children lose nutrition aid, 125,000 families are going to lose housing aid, 70,000 kids lose head start, 25,000 fewer cancer screenings.

Dana, a local news report that was referred to by Jared from last month on how head start programs in Indiana were using lotteries to decide which preschoolers would get kicked out, look at this report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Head start has made a big difference in 4-year-old Sage, how he plays with other kids, how he`s advanced academically.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m very proud of him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: But Alice just learned her son soon has to stay home. He is being cut from the program as a result of federal budget cuts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our hearts are broken because he loves school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Earlier this week, staff put all of the kids` names in a fish bowl. Names picked get to stay. The rest have to leave the program.

What happened?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His name didn`t get picked. I don`t know how to tell him he`s not going back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: I mean, these are heart-wrenching stories. All right, of us want to see the flights leave on town, we are fliers. What we want to see is fairness. We don`t want to see kids like that can`t go to head start just so business men can fly and business women can go and do what they have to do to make the bottom line for their companies.

MILBANK: It does show the stupidity of it all, Reverend. This is your government on auto pilot -- no brain power being used , whatsoever. Even if we can agree that, OK, government spending in some form or most likely on the entitlement side needs to be trimmed over time, people could get together and make sensible cuts. It`s absurd to do things in this way and it`s going to hurt a lot of the weak and the poor and it`s going to hurt a lot of people who politicians profess to care about. Guess what else is going to be taken a whack out of here? Military hospitals. They have a lottery to tell us which of our soldiers deserved to be treated in hospitals.

SHARPTON: You know, Jared, the fact is that we as a people, the citizens need to be heard on this. If they can come together and find a way to have a nonpartisan vote to deal with the airline delays, it shows they can come together for what they want to. What do we have to do to make them want to do this for the rest?

BERNSTEIN: I think it`s a great question. I think it has a lot to do with both visibility and pressure. The problem with the kinds of cases that we have documented throughout our discussion here, some kids in Indiana, some unemployed folks, a woman on meals on wheels, They are the dispirit folks who around the country, they are not people flying every day in airports, much more, as I said, high visibility. There needs to be a mechanism for all of those disparate folks to come together with one voice and say, you got together to help a bunch of business travelers, how about getting together to help us as well.

SHARPTON: Dana Milbank and Jared Bernstein.

And I agree with you. Part of the job is to make sure we have fairness. It is the job o those of us that care about people to make them visible and make it unavoidable that we are seeing that people are hurting. And sometimes you have to put it in the face of those that want to ignore you so they can`t ignore you anymore.

Thank you for your time.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you, Rev.

MILBANK: Keep at it, reverend.

SHARPTON: President Obama takes a stands for women`s rights and smacks down the Republican bid to roll back the clock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want you to know that you`ve also got a president who is going to be right there with you fighting every step of the way. Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: And historical fiction. George W. Bush wants to rewrite history. We won`t let him once we finish laughing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: One of the key parts of this museum is what is called the decision points theater. It`s an interactive exhibit.

SHARPTON: And it may be a new low for the right wing. News in the Boston terror attacks to smear the president of the United States. So much for their supposed respect for the office. It`s terrible. And we`re going after them tonight.

You`re watching "Politics Nation" on MSNBC.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Have you joined the "Politics Nation" conversation on facebook yet? We hope you will.

Our facebook fans are still talking about President Bush`s legacy, including his support of the war in Iraq.

Beatrice says, only Republicans still support the war in Iraq.

Hurley adds, trillions of dollars wasted on a war that was not necessary.

And Lane writes, good things times of changed and we are getting rid of Bush`s policy.

We will have more on president Bush`s attempted rewrite history coming up. But first, we want to hear what you think, too. Please head over to facebook and search "Politics Nation" and "like" us to join the conversation that keeps going long after the show ends.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: How serious is the GOP? Serious enough that today, President Obama became the first sitting president ever to address planned parenthood, giving a speech in support of women`s rights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: So when politicians tried to turn planned parenthood into the punching bag, they are not just talking to you, they are talking to the millions of women who have been served and they have been involved in orchestrated and historic effort to rollback basic rights when it comes to women`s health. When you read some of these laws, you want to check the calendar. You want to make sure you are still living in 2013.

(LAUGHTER)

SHARPTON: The year is 2013. But Republicans are trying to roll back the clock. Last year, 42 states passed laws to restrict abortion. And already this year, 326 proposals have been introduced that would restrict a woman`s right to choose. President Obama says we have to fight back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: No matter how great the challenge, no matter how fierce the opposition, there`s one thing the past few years have shown, it`s that planned parenthood is not going anywhere. It`s not going anywhere today, it`s not going anywhere tomorrow. And as long as we have to fight to make her own choices about her own health, I want you all to know that you`ve also got a president that`s going to be right there with you fighting every step of the way.

Thank you, planned parenthood. God bless you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: We`re seeing that fight in the halls of Congress and in states across the country but there`s also a darker side to this story, a hidden world of violent rhetoric.

This week we heard the prison phone call reportedly done with the man now serving life for murdering an abortion doctor. In that tape, there is ugly talk of shooting abortion workers, a sign of hate that is still festering deep inside that movement.

Joining me now is Frank Schaeffer, former evangelical and columnist for "the Huffington Post." He is author of "crazy for God."

Frank, thanks for you, being here tonight.

FRANK SCHAEFFER, THE HUFFINGTON POST: Thanks for having me on.

SHARPTON: in 2008 you wrote an op-ed that said quote "the prove life cause poisoned many of us who were part of it, me included. It led to the self-righteous hubris that extended to a general attitude of hate toward the other. Do you still see that kind of poison and hate in anti-abortion movement today?

SCHAEFFER: Absolutely. You know, when you look for instance at the tea party and you look at the people who were part of it or you look at the obstructionist Congress that have done everything in their power to stop President Obama from having a successful presidency, the bitterness at the root of many of those movements comes straight out of the heart of the anti-abortion movement which essential has put itself an opposition to every women in America, every reasonable man and the laws that protect women`s rights. And I tell you where you saw it clearly, Reverend Sharpton within the last election round when it expanded from even abortion rights to contraception, these were the guys who got together with the anti-choice roman catholic bishops and tried to paint the president as anti-religious because he wanted women to have contraceptives paid for by their insurance providers.

So, the move is generally misogynistic. If people read my book "Crazy for God," they will see why I left the pro-life movement and became pro-choice. And one of the reasons was that I realized back in mid-1980s that people picketing clinics were soon be going to be bombing them, people who are bombing clinics were going to be shooting people.

There was ground swell of violent rhetoric within the movement right from the beginning which justified murder of people who were disagreeing with you on these issues.

SHARPTON: That`s what`s so disturbing to me.

Let me play you something that was a little chilling that I played earlier this week. It`s a tape of a man said to be Scott Roeder, who is talking about the people who reopened the clinic of the doctor he murdered, if its Roeder. Listen to this.

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a little bit death defying, you know, for someone to walk back in there, to walk in there and reopen a clinic, a murder mill where a man was stopped, you know, it`s almost like putting a target on your back saying, well, let`s see if you can shoot me.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Now, they just reopened the clinic this month. The clinic told us that they are treating the threat seriously but they won`t be intimidated, but he`s talking about this woman having a target on her back. I mean, help me with this, Frank. How do you love fetuses so you want to save life but you talk about killing people.

SCHAEFFER: Yes. One does not at all make sense of the other.

SHARPTON: I mean, that one does not at all makes sense of the other.

SCHAEFFER: Yes. I mean, you got to realize, there`s a lot of inconsistencies in the whole movement. You know, this is the same right wing bunch of Christians who want people to have access to 31 round magazine clips and assault weapons and they think that`s freedom.

You know, pro-life is a weird word to use for a far right movement. The fact the president that killed 5,000 Americans in Iraq for no reason, 250,000 Iraqis ran up $4.5 trillion debt. You know, the right wing is not pro life. OK? If they were pro life, they would be anti-NRA. They would be funding women. They would be funding women who have babies and take care of their children. They would not be doing lotteries in Indiana for head start. They would be taking care of those babies and those children once they are born. This is not a pro-life movement. This is simply misogynistic anti-choice movement. And as I said before you saw it with the Roman catholic bishops being down on the contraceptives.

And I want to say one other thing. You know, I was watching you the other the night and you were talking about how shocking it was that people were not standing up in the Republican party to people like Rush Limbaugh and have a history of cow-towing.

But, I see it here too. Where are the Republican leaders in the senate and Congress and the media who call themselves pro-life scanning up denouncing the fact that you have Roder making statements like this and just saying listen, this is awful. We got to roll back the clock on this and go back to a position where we are debating this.

SHARPTON: Well, that is a good question, Frank. Where are they? We played this by Roder, this tape the other night. Where are the mainstream moderate pro-life leaders that would say, wait a minute, I`m pro-life but this is despicable. This is inexcusable. Where are they? Where are those forces?

SCHAEFFER: Well, I tell you where they are, they are in private in meetings of pro life meetings going back into the `70s and `80s that I was part of. You have one set of rhetoric for your own people. Then if someone went too far, murdered someone, burnt a building down, and someone died, whatever it may be, afterwards you would make very pale statements, the same kind of sort of after the fact pussy-footing around that you see from the right wing and the Republicans when people like Limbaugh or people are outrageous. But that`s it.

What doesn`t happen is preventive action where they read people out of the movement. Remember, Scott Roder had been hanging around meeting with people like operation rescue before he was convicted of murder. Why are people like that welcome in those tenancy?

So you know, if this was the guy who bombed people in Boston and five years from now he was making statements like this saying talking about targets on Americans` back who were not Islamic or something, there would be as huge human pride. But, if it`s targeting providers of healthcare for women, apparently, there is no outrage.

(CROSSTALK)

SHARPTON: Well, it should be human crime no matter who says about targets on the back and I think it would be right if what you use on it should be done as well here is right to have an outcry and we don`t hear it.

SCHAEFFER: Right.

SHARPTON: Frank Schaeffer, thank you for your time tonight.

SHARPTON: Still ahead, his buddies are telling some tall tales about President Bush. You will want to hear this.

But first, the GOP is swinging this on Hillary. They totally numbered their latest attempt to bring her down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: These days Hillary Clinton is riding high. A new poll shows that 64 percent of Americans view her favorably. Of course, this terrifies Republicans so they`ve kept their favorite line of attack, Benghazi.

As secretary of state Mrs. Clinton testified about the attack on our consulate and an independent review board cleared her any personal fault. But the GOP doesn`t care. House Republicans huddled behind closed doors and cooked up their own report that blames Clinton personally for lower security at the Benghazi consulate and they have been going on FOX News to promote it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secretary of state was just wrong. She said she did not participate in this. And yet, only a few months before the attack, she outright denied security in her signature in a cable April 2012.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Her signature in a cable. That`s a powerful accusation. There`s only one problem. It`s not true. Democratic congressman Elijah come and sent this letter to speaker Boehner doing cold water on Issa`s period. He points out that the cable Issa is talking about has a section with the secretary`s name typed at the bottom of the page. As just as thousands of other cables, typed, text, no signature. Clinton never signed it. There`s no indication she ever even saw it. The fact checkers at "the Washington Post" looked into this theory, too. They agree. Four Pinnochios for Congressman Issa`s signature argument. Anything to say about that Mr. Issa?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: Bless the Democrats` hearts. They like their report but they can`t find a factual error to ours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Well, looks like we found one. A big one. Did Congressman Issa think we would sign off on his major -- attempt to take down Mrs. Clinton? Nice try, but we got you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES: I`ve been very clear publicly but also privately that for the Syrian government, to utilize chemical weapons on its people process a line that will change my calculus and how the United States approaches these issues. This is going to be a long-term proposition. This is not going to be something that is solved easily overnight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: President Obama today making it clear he`s talking very seriously but he`s not about to rush into war. What a difference. What a difference from what we saw with President Bush in Iraq. With Iraq, the WMDs didn`t exist but he led America into war anyway and that`s why the debate over the Bush legacy is more relevant than ever.

His fail policies still haunt the debate of today, what to do in Syria, how to treat terrorist suspects and how to deal with the budget America needs. An honest assessment of the Bush legacy, so we don`t repeat those mistakes today. But this week leading up to the opening of his library, President Bush and his allies have been very busy rewriting history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), UNITED STATES: I took my duties as commander in chief, particularly the duties of honoring those who wear the uniform, very seriously.

I will give you my judgment, removing Saddam Hussein was the right decision and the world is better off without him in power.

We`ve advanced the cause of peace and freedom and helped improve the human condition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Advancing the cause of peace, improving the human condition? We need to have an honest conversation about whether that`s really what happened during the Bush administration.

Joining me now is Melissa Harris-Perry and Bob Shrum. Thank you both for being here tonight.

MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY, MSNBC HOST, "MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY": Absolutely.

BOB SHRUM, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Glad to be here.

SHARPTON: Melissa, how do you react to President Bush and saying he advanced the cause of peace?

PERRY: I mean, what we know is that President Bush said that history was going to judge him. But it`s clear that he`s not going to let that be an impartial jury, that he is going to try to influence that jury because for him to now rewrite what has been for us more than a decade of war, a decade of war against an ill-defined enemy, where we can`t really know when there`s a victory, in sort of responding in the way that he did to the context of 9/11, as the president said at the moment of his election, we`re going to shift this back to the people who are responsible for 9/11.

What does the president do, ultimately is responsible for the death, the capture and the death of Osama bin Laden. But George W. Bush moved us in a false war built on pretense and lies into Iraq. How does that advance the cause of freedom?

SHARPTON: And then when you look, Bob, at the former chief of staff for President Bush, Andy Card, talking about the Bush`s economic record, President Bush`s economic record, listen to what Andy Card said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY CARD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: President Bush probably has the best track record of any modern president in terms of fiscal discipline at the federal government level as well. And that`s something the government has forgotten about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: The best record of any modern president. I mean, he`s driven current and future public debt more than anything else. I mean, the chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the yellow and red parts of the graph you see account for nearly half of the public debt. They talk about the debt and the deficit, half of it comes from Bush tax cuts and the two wars he put us in.

SHRUM: Look, these people are in a state of illusion and denial. The fact is that there`s no debate among historians. Historians almost to a person rank Bush near the bottom of presidents, I think that will continue. We had out here in California for a while, a Nixon library that was an exercise and -- geography until the federal government took it over a new director name Tim Naftali changed it from a fairy tale into historical accuracy.

I don`t care what exhibits they put up, what interactive things they have, how they go out and spend this. Melissa is right. Iraq was a complete disaster, a war we never should have fought. We were misled, if not lied into. The Afghanistan war was bungled. They took the biggest surpluses that, you know, Bill Clinton created this enormous surpluses and we were headed to a $3.5 trillion surplus over a period of years.

And they turned it into massive deficits, gave us the worst economic crisis since the great depression and then he got re-elected barely in 2004 by appealing to homophobia in the form of state constitutional amendments to ban marriage equality. The guy should have been a painter in the first place, never a president, and Barbara Bush is right, we don`t want more bushes in the White House.

SHARPTON: You know, Melissa, when you think that Andy Card went too far but let me show you how there`s one upsmanship on that one. Karl Rove, the architect of the Bush years, let me just let you watch how he reframed history for Mr. Bush and felt his place in history where it belonged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL ROVE, FORMER BUSH ADVISOR: On the big things, he got it right, I do believe that the Iraq war was the right thing to do and the world is a safer place for having Saddam Hussein gone. The greats, you can`t touch.

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, FDR, the greats. But yes, I put him up there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: He would put them up there?

PERRY: Well, let me just say, I live in the city of New Orleans and we will not forget. There is no library that you can build. There is no whitewashing of history that you can do that will ever, ever, ever lead us to forget that this was the man who was president when Americans were left on the roof of their homes to dehydrate, to die, to have no potable water, they were left in super domes, they were left in the convention centers.

SHARPTON: Literally.

PERRY: Literally. American citizens left to die in American city while the President flew over and could not come home from vacation. We will not forget the legacy of George W. Bush.

SHARPTON: You know what amazes me when I was listening to Bush yesterday, and I`ve marched on Bush from the inauguration on, because it hangs in chairs. But if he invited us to the White House, we respected the presidency.

PERRY: Right.

SHARPTON: But the thing that got me was when he said New Orleans. One of the reasons is not just because I went and marched there and protested but I beat George Bush there and I didn`t have Air Force One. I got there before he got there and I had to drive in through all of that to get there to the protest and I went in and saw people in the superdome and the astrodome in Houston. And how do you see weapons from mass destruction in Iraq that wasn`t there which you couldn`t see people suffering in New Orleans that was there?

PERRY: We will never forget that. And I think what you just said was so important. There is, of course, respect for the office of the presidency of the United States. And, in fact, I think there was so much respect and so much difference particularly on the part of the Democratic Party post 9/11, because we recognized that terrorism was this fundamental thing that impacted all of us, that despite the fact that you may not have voted for this president, you nonetheless supported him but so much so, so much so, refusing to ask the questions that need to be asked about the patriot act, about authorizing you so forth.

SHARPTON: Right.

PERRY: That we allowed ourselves to be taken down a path that had horrible consequences for our economy, for our public safety, and for our national security.

SHARPTON: And civil liberties. And when you look at this, Bob, he talked President Bush yesterday about seeing the character of the nation. And that`s why I heard that reference to Hurricane Katrina. It was unbelievable. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Ultimately the success of a nation depends on the character of its citizens. The President and I had the privilege of seeing that character up close. I saw people in New Orleans who made homemade boats to rescue their neighbors from the floods.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: I mean, why would he even bring that up?

SHRUM: I don`t know. I suppose that he is living as I said earlier in the state of denial. Melissa is absolutely right. It was one of the low points of his entire administration and that`s really a pretty big claim because this administration spent most of its time below sea level. Look, this is a guy who doesn`t recognize that he made a mistake. You remember in 2004, he was asked in one of the debates, can you name one mistakes you made as president, he said he couldn`t. And it goes to something else.

He fails the other test of presidential consequence. He doesn`t enlarge or didn`t enlarge in any way or deepen America`s conception of itself. One of his most famous lines, one I supposed he could put on the wall of the library was uttered in New Orleans to his FEMA director in the middle of the mess, heck of a job, brownie. The only other line I can think of his axis of evil which is part of this terrible war that we fought that killed so many people and left the country in such terrible shape.

SHARPTON: Melissa Harris-Perry, Bob Shrum, thank you both for your time tonight.

SHRUM: Thank you.

SHARPTON: Don`t forget to catch Melissa Harris-Perry at 10 a.m. Eastern on Saturdays and Sundays. Still ahead, the right wing`s moment of shame, using the Boston bombings to launch a personal attack on the president.

And Boston, strong. How the city and the country are uniting and inspiring us all. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: There`s been an unbelievable response to the Boston marathon bombings from the right wing. Unbelievably bad. There`s new reference is to use the bombings as an excuse to smear the President. Just listen to this guest on Sean Hannity`s FOX News show who says the President is soft on terror and this genius has a cockamamie idea why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CUNNINGHAM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Maybe his middle name is a clue and also the fact that he spent most of his childhood practicing the Muslim faith. And so I think of course he`s a Christian now but we have to understand where he came from. He said the sweetest sounds he`s ever heard are prayers at sunset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: The President`s middle name and childhood are clues to his policies on terror? Yes, whatever.

But I`m sure the FOX host said him straight or not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUNNINGHAM: So, without an orientation, I think it`s hard for this president to say anything other than Muslim Jihadist terrorist because it runs contrary to the things he was taught when he was a boy in Honolulu, in Chicago, Indonesia. I think Rudy said it best. He`s got a pre 9/11 mentality and he`s getting us killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Worse than that. He said it was worse than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: The only thing worse than that is your none response. As the insult of the president of the United States. The freak out is better enough from the commentators on the right but it`s no better from some actual elected Republicans. Listen to this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R), TEXAS: This administration has so many Muslim brotherhood members that have influence that they just are making wrong decisions for America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: That`s Louie Gohmert, a republican from Texas saying the Muslim Brotherhood is in our government, more insults to this president, and the sound of silence from the craven republican leaders.

Joining me now is Angela Rye, thanks for being here, Angela.

ANGELA RYE, IMPACT STRATEGIES: Thank you, Rev.

SHARPTON: You know, you`ve got a lot of experience on Capitol Hill, don`t you think more moderate Republicans would want to denounce this kind of rhetoric? I mean, it can go over well with voters.

RYE: Well, Rev, you know, the interesting thing is this rhetoric is not new. We`ve heard this from the very beginning of President Obama`s first election. From 2008, this rhetoric is so old, and you begin to wonder whether the silent strategy really works. There are a couple of things that folks normally do to respond to this, one is to ignore and pretend that you know, it never existed and hopefully it will go away.

The other is, to address it head on and condemn it. They`ve never addressed this rhetoric hit on and condemned it. And perhaps it is now that time. Louie Gohmert of course is an elected official, a public servant you would think that you have an obligation to talk facts and clearly he does not take that oath that he`s required to take in the constitution, according to article six, to heart. There is some obligation that you have to act in good faith and that he continues to display that he doesn`t have any ability to do so. I want him to name one member of the Muslim brotherhood in the President`s administration.

SHARPTON: Well, let me give you another one. A right wing blogger -- and it`s amazing how they go to these and just grab these things out of nowhere and try to make them stick. Erick Erickson, he tweeted and I`m quoting his tweet, "I think the rise of multiculturalism leading to a lack of common culture played a role in the Boston bombing. Multiculturalism? Multiculturalism is to blame. I mean, isn`t that just the right wing going after one of their favorite targets. What does multiculturalism have to do with this?

RYE: Multiculturalism has nothing to do with this, Rev. In fact we see people who overtime have utilized whitewashing, Hitler, for example. That is a very dangerous talking point. You know, America over time has been built on this principle that we are a melting pot. And that our differences make us who we are. In fact, our differences in our diversity is in fact the tie that binds us, is what makes us indivisible. Right?

So, if you have someone saying the exact opposite that our differences is what needs to, you know, the basis of the fear and you know, the fear mongering here, it`s tremendously dangerous, particularly in a day and age where our National Security has been so tremendous and compromised. We have to come together, we`ve got to stand together and lay partisan differences aside right in this moment. It is so critical. This rhetoric that they continue to skew is reckless, it`s very, very dangerous, and it`s extremely toxic.

SHARPTON: Well, let me tell you another one. I mean, all the tons of reports about how the Obamas received public assistance. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Were the two bombing suspects and the entire family for that matter on the government dole for the entire time that they lived here in the United states of America, a country they now hate?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Are we deserved to know whether we paid for that bomb?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Let`s face it, a lot of criminals in the United States are on welfare. So, that`s isn`t a big surprise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: A lot of criminals are on welfare. Now we`re going to criminalize everybody on welfare because of these two bombers. I mean, why don`t we just go through the litany of people that have done terror attacks in this country and let`s see how many of them on welfare? Why are we even getting into this absurd discussion rather than dealing with securing and uniting the country around securing American people?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYE: Well, Rev, I think in part, if you look at this -- and I hate to make this a partisan issue at all, but the fact that they don`t want to address what would have happened in Boston had we not had the resources necessary on the state, local, and federal levels to really deal with this immediately, the best thing for them to do is to talk about whether or not they are on welfare because it`s a distraction from what really matters. We know that our resources are stretched very thin and we`ve got to make really critical decisions to ensure that whether a sequestration or other budget challenges that we`re still doing what`s right for our nation security.

SHARPTON: Angela Rye, thank you for your time tonight.

RYE: Thank you, Rev.

SHARPTON: We`ll be right back with the spirit and courage of Boston shared now with the entire country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: The cover of this week`s Boston magazines says it all about the resilience of that great city. It shows the shoes of marathon runner shape into the heart with the words, "We will finish the race." The two explosions that ripped into the city`s iconic event are giving rise to something even more powerful. Forging strong bonds for humanity in the wake of destruction. He`s bringing people together to give comfort to each other in the hour of need on Boylston Street.

People left hundreds of running shoes at a makeshift memorial in a sign of solidarity. This week, a marine who lost both legs in combat visited a hospital to inspire a mother and daughter. Who never imagined how their lives would change in an instance. Forty seven year old -- and our 17-year-old daughter was at the finish line when a blast went off. Both suffered serious injuries. Celeste lost both legs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I can`t do anything right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Right now, yes. But I`m telling you, with all my heart that you are going to be more independent, you know, than you ever were. And this is basically the start, you know. This is the new beginning for the both of you. And you know, so many opportunities is going to come your way.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You look good. You look real good.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Thank you

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: This doesn`t matter. This is just a change of scenery. It really is.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I know.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: He`s moving, running, he`s doing the Paralympics.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Really?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: And you may want to do that one day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: The start of a new beginning. The marines help show both women the possibilities ahead. Another victim, Heather Abbott found hope in a bedside visit from someone she didn`t know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEATHER ABBOTT, BOMBING SURVIVOR: If someone had told me that I was going to have half a leg basically at the age of 38 before this happened, I think I would have never believed it. I think I would have been devastated and I really haven`t had a moment yet of being devastated because I`ve gotten so much support from the hospital. I mean, the hospital`s brought in individuals who are in the same situation as I am, they live normal lives, they were able to tell me about that, which has been great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: We`ve heard so many inspiring stories this week. Including the story of Victoria McGrath who suffered life-altering injuries. McGrath left the hospital this week. She`s already on the road to recovery and ready to get back to normal life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTORIA MCGRATH, BOMBING SURVIVOR: I want to go and have a home-cooked meal. I want to see my pets. I want to sleep in my own bed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Earlier this week, Victoria had an emotional reunion with the strangers who risked their lives to save hers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Thanks for seeing us.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Thank you. You saved my life. You saved my life. Otherwise, I would have bled out because it hit the artery.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Wow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Boston reminds us of the greatest parts of the American story, that no matter what happened, whatever the crisis, whatever adversity, get up, stand up, finish the race. We`ve come too far to turn around now.

Thanks for watching. I`m Al Sharpton. "HARDBALL" starts right now.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END

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